Robin Van Gyn

A true snowboard missionary, Robin Van Gyn is a devoted backcountry trailblazer on North and South America's steepest peaks. Hilarious and charismatic, Robin also spends her time coaching kids in the fine art of shred. She's a regular in the backcountry and typically can be found dropping cliffs, pillow lines, and spinning off kickers - exploits often documented in magazines and films.

Robin has dedicated the last few years to a full-on filming campaign, earning the only full part of backcountry riding in Peepshow Film's 2011 release "Winter Wars". She followed that up with an epic season of filming for the P.S. webisode series with fellow backcountry extraordinaire, Hana Beaman.

As temperatures continue to drop and fresh snow dumps on our favorite mountains, our attention turns to making sure we have the right gear for the conditions.

All the tech jargon can be a little confusing, so we asked Robin Van Gyn and Lena Stoffel to break down some essential comfort, waterproofing and warmth features in our snow range to make sure you have everything you need this season.

First off, Gortex is a lightweight, durable, waterproof technology that helps keep you dry on the mountain. Likewise, Dryflight is lightweight and water repellent. Additionally, Primaloft is lightweight insulation that runs through the jacket. Keeping you extra cozy on the slopes. Similarly, Warmflight technology is synthetic yarn inflation (warm and breathable). Another aspect of our products is 4-way stretch, allowing your snow gear to feel just as comfortable as streetwear.

In Travis Rice’s latest film project, Depth Perception, he invited Austen Sweetin, Bryan Fox, and Robin Van Gyn to share some serious stoke as they tackle some of the most incredible and awe-inspiring back country riding that British Columbia has to offer.

What connects each of them is not only their collective experiences, passion, and respect for the mountains, but also a deeper understanding of the natural world and its impact on their sport.

With the film now touring Europe and soon to hit North America, we asked Robin to give us a little insight into the making of the film, but what we got was more than that. It’s a reasoning that goes beyond hunting for that perfect ride… Scroll down to read more.

We have so much more to share with you that what you think.

Decades of exploration and progression in the mountains has brought us here to a place where action alone won’t cut it.

Behind every film stacked with tricks and cheese wedge bangers, there is a bigger picture, a story about the mountains and the terrain we live in that most frothy snowboard movie watchers miss.

Natural wonder is what has drawn us, as snowboarders, to do what we do. Whether we sought it out to begin with or had our eyes opened along the way doesn't matter, it’s just the realization
of what we are surrounded with and how awesome this arena is that is the most interesting and complex.

No winter has ever proven so inspiring and so heartbreaking as the one we just had. Winter was in full force and dropped us some heavy powder magic without breaking for a breath of sun.

We were deep in the mix of Canadian Wilderness in a place where the pillows stacked on huge walls of spines and rock and the trees took over as skyscraper landscape.

Every day was a new kind of challenge, and I can say that the lessons in riding with a crew like ours in the mountains that complex was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

No matter what you’ll watch Depth Perception for, what you will take from it is a better understanding of the places we go and why we do, and maybe, just maybe you’ll go there too. Anything is possible.

If you’ve been lucky enough to catch a screening of the Full Moon film as it tours or perhaps you’ve downloaded a copy, either way, you’ll know when we say that besides the incredible footage of the fierce female snowboarders (including our girl, Robin Van Gyn), the music featured is a spot on winner.

We’ve added the soundtrack to our Spotify channel in preparation for your next session on the mountain. Channel your inner Robin Van Gyn and charge!

You may have been lucky enough to lay a few first runs of the season already or maybe you’re getting set for your next alpine adventure, either way you need to make sure you have the right layers to have a stress free experience, and few people understand the importance of layering for whatever the conditions may be than backcountry queen, Robin Van Gyn

In a layering lesson that takes it back to basics, Robin breaks it down for you so you’ll be comfortable and shred ready.

We have no maps. We're lead by heart, and our aim is true: Progression. Gold medals. Experiences. It's different for each of us. Driven by day and crazed by night, pre-dawn to après, our pattern is clear: FIND, SHRED, REPEAT. #ROXYsnow

It’s been two years in the making, shot across five different (and epic) locations, with seven amazing snowboarders, all in the pursuit of connecting the past, present and future of women’s snowboarding together. This incredible bunch of females have poured their blood sweat and tears into a project that is sure to inspire the next generation of backcountry riders.

With the World premiere hitting the silver screen in Whistler today, we asked Robin Van Gyn to share her 10 favorite moments from the last two years. Read Robin’s highlights below -

It’s been a wild time. During the filming of Full Moon I have been the most scared, most challenged, most stoked, most tired and most sore from laughing. Here are some of the best moments in the past two years of filming:

1. Seeing our Kickstarter campaign get successfully funded. This was the first solid sign that this film was indeed going to happen. We felt at that point that we had support and a lot of people were stoked on what we were trying to do.

2. That time we went up Whistler Blackcomb in naked suits. It was a powder day, It was cold, mothers were covering their children's eyes.

3. The night we formed the band “Muffin Top” and recorded our first single, which only played once… the next day when the decision was made that this should never injure anyone ears ever again.

4. The last day of sledding in the Whistler Backcountry last season. We spent the day with the cameras down just snowboarding laps and doing backflips like a bunch of kids on the last day of school.

9. Shredding Alaska lines with almost the entire Full Moon squad. We scored this day and got to ride some of the most intimidating mountain faces in Alaska. Everyone killed it and t was this day our producer Leanne decided we now really had a movie!

10. When we made the mock-umentary “Whishalla” which overwhelmingly won the people's choice at Intersection, a film contest at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival. This video will never grace the internet, you will just have to use your imagination. Run with it, we sure did.

11. I know it was only supposed to be 10, but I had to include this one as it sums up the feel of this movie. Shredding pow with your best friends in the most amazing snowboard places on the planet. Pinch me, this life is too good.

There is no present without the past and no future without the present.

Be inspired by women who push boundaries. Full Moon is a two-year film project featuring Robin Van Gyn Annie Boulanger, Hana Beaman, Jamie Anderson, Leanne Pelosi, Marie-­France Roy, and Helen Schettini, documenting the past, present, and future of women's snowboarding. Through interviews and resurrected classic footage, Runway Films is producing a film that pays tribute to the history of women's snowboarding and showcases how it has influenced and encouraged the current state of the sport.

Watch the trailer, and stay tuned for more exclusives with the team in the lead up to the full film which premieres in Whistler on September 16th

After chasing Winter almost year round, who could blame #ROXYsnow Queens, Torah Bright and Robin Van Gyn, for the need to shake off the winter blues by booking an impromptu trip to the tropics. Swapping snowboards for surfboards and to soak up a healthy dose of sun, sand and salt in Fiji for a week.

From the Australian snowfields just days before boarding a plane, Robin and Torah had plans perfected, tickets booked and bags packed ready for the 4 hour flight from Sydney to the South Pacific. But what happens then when your wardrobe for paradise matches that of your BFF? Robin fills us in on their twinning adventures below.

We spend the bulk of our lives amidst storms and snowy mountains, so I think it’s ok to take a little ‘thaw out’ vacation every once in awhile. On a snowboard trip to Australia, Torah and I started dreaming up a zinc and coconut infused adventure while we were riding the t-bar one frosty morning. Within three strap-ins, we were confirmed to slide at Tavarua Island Resort, Fiji.

Picturing ourselves looking like Steph Gilmore at Cloudbreak, we knew we needed kits to match the vision. We stopped in at the ROXY store in Manly, Sydney, to top up the Summer wardrobe essentials. What followed was a lot of switching suits and the running commentary featured plenty of “ooh ya, that one is cute too” and “is there another medium?”

It was inevitable really, we have very similar taste and from the moment we boarded our Fiji Air flight in the exact same outfit to almost every island activity you can think of - surfing, stand up
Paddleboarding, snorkeling, tennis, dinner, dancing or fishing, we ended up twinning our way through the week.

The flow of compliments ranged from “how cute” and “is that ROXY?”. We were loving it, and to top it all off, we borrowed matching mermaid tails the we constantly slipped into when the waves weren’t firing.

As it turned out, we were looking less like Steph at Cloudbreak and more like snowboarders at Swimming Pools (the mellower break), and the swell didn’t arrive until we were on a plane back to Australia, but we had a hell of a time in melting winter off and planning our next outfit. We managed to do every activity available on the island and meet some amazing people in the process.

Basking in our new South Pacific glow, we coordinated our travel outfit one last time, in preparation for the all too familiar airport routine back home to await a northern hemi winter. Where we return to our non-twinning versions of ourselves. Thanks for the fun Fiji!

Round 2 resumed this morning at the #ROXYpro France, with 6x World Champ Stephanie Gilmore facing off against Hawaiian, Malia Manuel.

After a slow start, Steph tucked into a clean barrel and scored the highest wave score of the afternoon with an 8.83.

It came down to a close finish in the final minutes of the heat, Steph taking the win and progressing to Round 3 with a 13.50 to Malia’s 13.40

Here are the Round 3 match ups:

Heat 1: Johanne Defay VS Tyler Wright VS Sage Erickson

Heat 2: Courtney Conlogue VS Stephanie Gilmore VS Coco Ho

Heat 3: Carissa Moore VS Nikki Van Dijk VS Alessa Quizon

Heat 4: Sally Fitzgibbons VS Tatiana Weston-Webb VS Dimity Stoyle

Steph has had an epic cheer squad on the beach this week, with the ROXY surf and snow teams cheering her on through the first rounds of competition. Although the girls have had a busy schedule of signing sessions, event hangs, photo shoots, there has still been plenty of time to share the stoke and a whole lotta laughs in between.

Tune in to the @wsl for the call and don't forget to follow ROXY on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for all the updates and behind the scenes exclusives.

After a string of lay days, the #ROXYpro kicked off yesterday in pumping Hawaiian-style conditions at Les Culs Nus beach, near Hossegor. The girls made the most of the epic swell, scoring barrel rides and the first perfect 10 of the competition.

If you missed any of the action, here are our highlights -

Heat one opened with a bang! Tour rookie; Tatiana Weston-Webb claimed the day’s standout performance against Bianca Buitendag and fellow Hawaiian Alessa Quizon, getting pitted in a beautiful set wave barrel and scoring the first perfect 10 of the comp.

The beach was buzzing in the lead up to heat 4, as 6x World Champion Stephanie Gilmore pulled on a comp jersey for the first time since April, at the Margaret River pro.
With a tough match up against World number 2, Carissa Moore, Steph struggled to match Carissa’s momentum, coming away with a 12.66 to Moore’s 18.77.

Unfortunately it was not the day for ROXY team riders Bianca Buitendag and Chelsea Tuach, both eliminated in Round 2 (despite the support of the ROXY team on the beach)

We know how much Robin Van Gyn loves chasing epic backcountry powder on some of the World most dramatic (and remote!) peaks.

In Snowboard Magazine's latest release of their seven part series SideTracked by Full Moon, Robin not only talks about her passion and respect for the Mountains but also the science and experience she uses in reading conditions for a safe shred session every time she heads out.

The countdown is on and in a matter of days we’ll be hitting the beaches along the Landes Coast for the #ROXYpro France. Aside from the World class surfing, we have some exciting events we’d like to invite you to….